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[506d]
to contemplate, things blind and
crooked, when you might hear from others what is luminous1 and fair?”
“Nay, in heaven's name, Socrates,” said Glaucon,
“do not draw back, as it were, at the very goal.2 For it will content us if you explain the good
even as you set forth the nature of justice, sobriety, and the other
virtues.” “It will right well3 content me, my dear fellow,” I said,
“but I fear that my powers may fail and that in my eagerness I may
cut a sorry figure and become a laughing-stock.4 Nay, my beloved,

1 Probably an allusion to the revelation of the
mysteries. Cf. Phaedr. 250 C, Phileb. 16
C, rep. 518 C, 478 C, 479 D, 518 A. It is fantastic to
see in it a reference to what Cicero calls the lumina
orationis of Isocratean style. The rhetoric and synonyms of this
passage are not to be pressed.

3καὶμάλα, “jolly
well,” humorous emphasis on the point that it is much easier
to “define” the conventional virtues than to explain
the “sanction.” Cf. Symp. 189 A,
Euthydem. 298 D-E, Herod. viii. 66. It is frequent in the Republic.Ritter gives forty-seven cases.
I have fifty-four! But the point that matters is the humorous tone. Cf.
e.g. 610 E.

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